Purpose and Primary Questions

I posited in my last post that a clear Purpose Statement contains the "why" for a person to be and to do what he or she is and does, and contains the "why" for an organization to be and to do what it is and does. In philosophy, certain "why" questions, and related questions, are sometimes called "primary questions." A short (and by no means exhaustive) sampling illustrates the centrality of primary questions in helping us (or not) to make sense of ourselves (as individuals and organizations) and the world around us.

• "Who am I?"
• "Why do I exist?" (or "Why am I here?")
• "What is knowable, and how do I know it?"
• "What is real?" (or "What can I be certain of?")

It is obvious that walking down this path does not lead to quick or easy answers. The Purpose Statement, whether for an individual or an organization, is not arrived at in an instant. It is, in some respects, a life's work.

I have an acquaintance who is becoming my friend. He is CEO of a larger local charitable organization. He worked as assistant to the founder for nine years before she retired and he became CEO. I have asked him what the purpose of the organization was in the mind of the founder. (There is no written purpose statement.) He replied to the effect that the organization was founded to help a certain specific group in the larger population. "Yes," I replied. "But why this specific work?" There are many--maybe hundreds--of ways that a person or organization could help that same group. Why this particular work that the organization does? He had no answer.

If the purpose of this organization, in the mind of the founder, was simply to help the specific group it helps, then does it really matter if it abandons the specific work it is doing in favor of a different kind of work that benefits the same group? The answer, for my CEO friend, was no--the particular kind of work the organization engages in is part of its original purpose. This question is now on his mind, and I believe the organization will be better for it.

The Purpose Statement does more than identify who we desire to serve. It somehow lets future generations know that there is something important about doing a particular thing to serve that specific group of people. To take this a step further, if all the founder of the organization I refer to wanted was to help a specific group of people, why not go to work for another organization that already served that group? Why take on the headache and responsibility and risk of founding a new organization, with all the funding, personnel, board, operational, administrative, etc. issues that go with it? There had to be something else at work in her to compel her to take that leap.

Which brings me to this: the Purpose Statement does not only answer the "why" of who one is and what one does, but identifies the reason that particular "why" was important. Others can look at the Purpose Statement and not only see why the organization or person is and what it does, but can also see the reason the specifics of "is" and "does" are important.

If my Purpose Statement says, "My purpose is to serve others," it is too general to have any meaning. If my Purpose Statement says, "My purpose is to serve others by helping NPOs to be the best they can be," the Statement is slightly better but does not explain my reasoning that "helping NPOs to be the best they can be" is my expression of "serving others." When I think I have crafted my Purpose Statement, I should step back and ask, "Why?" When all the "whys" are accounted for, perhaps my work in crafting the Purpose Statement is done.

My purpose, and the purpose of my organization, needs to be tied to the "primary questions." I should welcome the probing questions of others--particularly skeptics--to sharpen my understanding of why doing a particular thing, or a particular set of things, for a specific group is really what I (or my organization) are all about. The process should be on-going. I should never rest, never be satisfied. After thousands of years of philosophers posing, and sometimes claiming to answer, primary questions, philosophers today still ask the same questions. Philosophers tomorrow will ask the same questions. The understanding gained is worth all the questioning, and all the searching for "the" answer.